Stardock Releases WindowBlinds 2.0; Next Generation Version of WindowBlinds Features Dynamic Coloring, Improved Performance, Compound Skins and More.Business Editors/High-Tech Writers CANTON Canton, cities, United States Canton. 1 City (1990 pop. 13,922), Fulton co., W central Ill., in the corn belt; inc. 1849. It is a trade and industrial center for a coal and farm area. 2 Town (1990 pop. 18,530), Norfolk co. , Mich.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 26, 2000 Stardock announced the second generation of its universal user interface skinning program WindowBlinds WindowBlinds is a computer program that allows users to skin the Windows graphical user interface. It has been developed by Stardock since 1998, and is the most popular component of their flagship software suite, Object Desktop. today. WindowBlinds is a program that allows users to completely alter the graphical user interface graphical user interface (GUI) Computer display format that allows the user to select commands, call up files, start programs, and do other routine tasks by using a mouse to point to pictorial symbols (icons) or lists of menu choices on the screen as opposed to having to of Windows 98/NT/ME/2000 to suit their needs. With it, users can transform Windows to look like other operating systems Operating systems can be categorized by technology, ownership, licensing, working state, usage, and by many other characteristics. In practice, many of these groupings may overlap. (MacOS, Linux Linux Nonproprietary operating system (OS) for digital computers. In 1991 Linus Torvalds of Finland began asking for volunteer programmers over the Internet to collaborate on the development of a UNIX-like OS for personal computers; the “1. KDE (K Desktop Environment) A GUI-based user interface primarily for Unix and Linux machines, but also available for Windows and Mac. The source code is freely distributed and is maintained by developers around the world. , Linux Gnome, OS/2, etc.) or something completely new. "WindowBlinds has been a huge success for us," said Bradley Wardell Product Manager of WindowBlinds. "Our primary goal with version 2.0 is to expand its user base more into the mainstream." Version 2.0 moves towards this goal by coming with a new object-oriented rendering See render. (graphics, text) rendering - The conversion of a high-level object-based description into a graphical image for display. For example, ray-tracing takes a mathematical model of a three-dimensional object or scene and converts it into a bitmap image. engine that nearly doubles the performance of WindowBlinds, adds a host of new features, and integrates nicely into the Windows OS. New features in 2.0 include: -- Dynamic Colorizing. Users can choose what color they want their skin to be and WindowBlinds 2.0 can alter the skin on the fly to match those colors. -- WindowBlinds 2.0 can now skin combo boxes, rebars, MDI child window buttons, status bars, group boxes, headers, along with virtually every other element of the Windows GUI -- Font and Color objects are now available that allow users to control the font and its color in virtually every aspect of Windows in virtually every possible state that element can be in (normal, pushed, disabled, etc.). -- Layouts allow users to determine the positioning of icons and text in most GUI elements in Windows. -- Compound skins: WindowBlinds 2.0 can now support multiple skins in a skin file so that the user can choose between different visual styles for that skin. -- New button controls including an "Optimize" title bar button which allows users to have a window resized to a specified resolution (instead of just minimize and maximize). "With 2.0, we are hoping that users will increasingly see WindowBlinds as a productivity enhancement. WindowBlinds 1.0 was widely seen as primarily "eye candy Images and animated graphics added to Web sites and interactive software that makes the information exciting. In other words, glitz, sizzle and pizzazz. See cornea gumbo. " even though it added a lot of functionality to Windows. WindowBlinds 2.0 adds a lot of functionality plus greater control over the look of Windows," said Wardell. Stardock will also be releasing DirectSkin 2.0 concurrently with WindowBlinds 2.0. DirectSkin allows software developers to use WindowBlinds technology to make their own programs skinnable. WindowBlinds 2.0 is $19.95 to register. A shareware Software on the "honor system." The concept is that users try a product, and if they like it, they voluntarily pay a set registration fee or make a donation to the program's creator. There are tens of thousands of shareware programs; some fantastic, some awful. version will be available for users to evaluate before registering. Users of WindowBlinds 1.0 can upgrade for $10 though Stardock plans to support WindowBlinds 1.0 until June 30, 2001. Users who purchased WindowBlinds 1.0 on or after July 1, 2000 can upgrade to 2.0 free of charge. Screenshots of WindowBlinds in action: http://www.stardock.com/products/windowblinds/wb-aug00e.jpg http://www.stardock.com/products/windowblinds/wb-aug00b.jpg http://www.stardock.com/products/windowblinds/wb-aug00g.jpg Stardock.net, Inc. http://www.stardock.com / http://www.stardock.net 17292 Farmington Rd. Livonia MI 48152 Requires: Windows 98,NT, ME or Windows 2000 |
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